Letting is safer than buying, say worried tenants

The latest RICS residential lettings survey reports rising yields on rental properties as a result of increased tenant demand and rising rents.

Surveyors whose offices handle lettings reported the now familiar picture of rising rents, improved yields and greater tenancy demand in the three months to October.

Tenants are turning to the rental sector not just because they are struggling to raise a mortgage but because they see renting as a safer option, say RICS members.

The survey says that supply of rental property to the market remains unable to keep up with tenant demand, even though new landlord instructions did increase in the three month period to October.

It was the fastest pace of rising instructions since the three months to April 2009.

Surveyors noted that some properties, particularly family homes, are now coming to the lettings market after unsuccessful sales campaigns.

RICS spokesperson James Scott-Lee said: “The disappointing economic message communicated by the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement and the prospect of further job losses in some sectors and areas over those previously envisaged is likely to continue to underpin the residential lettings market in the near term.”